FIG. 5 is a side view of typical, or conventional, bumper spring 200 in a production tube.
FIG. 6 is a side view of a typical, or conventional, well showing an arrangement and location for bumper spring arrangement 202. The following should be viewed in light of FIGS. 5 and 6. Bottom-hole bumper springs, such as spring 200 shown in FIG. 5, are typically used in wells, such as well 204, with plunger artificial lift systems. Due to the construction of the bumper springs, the flow path taught for production tubes, such as tube 206, is restricted to the space through sealing portion 207 and then through the space between an outer circumference of the bumper spring, for example, as defined by the outer circumference of spring 208, and the production tube. This flow path is shown in FIG. 5. To more clearly illustrate this flow path, the size of the space noted above has been exaggerated in FIG. 5.
Operation of a typical bottom-hole bumper spring is predicated upon placing a spring in the space noted above to absorb the impact of a plunger. Typically, the operation of the bumper spring is further based on restricting the size of the portion of the bumper spring impacted by a plunger to fit within the area formed by the outer diameter of the spring. Thus, the area available for flow past the bumper spring also is restricted to the area between the portion of the bumper spring impacted by a plunger and the inner diameter of the production tube.